1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method, more particularly to a technique of embedding identification data in drive waveform data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In printing by an inkjet method, a system is known in which waveform data is transferred to a print head control board from outside and a drive waveform applied to an actuator is generated at the print head control board according to a definition of the waveform data.
In a system such as described above, there may be cases where waveform data that differs from a desired color is inadvertently transferred due to human error or cases where waveform data transfer fails due to noise or device malfunction. In such a case, a problem occurs in that the print head control board holds inaccurate waveform data such as waveform data of a different color or waveform data during transfer failure and, as a result, an abnormal drive waveform is generated. To avoid such problems related to data transfer, additional information is connected to waveform data, and the waveform data is managed with the additional information.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-237527 discloses a technique in which gradation data (corresponding to one line) and a header indicating a color of the gradation data and the number of bits of the gradation data are added to each piece of print data, and by interpreting the header by an analyzing unit inside a printer, a generated drive waveform is determined. According to this technique, printing can be executed even when print data with gradation information that differs for each color is included.
However, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-237527 disadvantageously requires a data capacity corresponding to the addition of the header. Furthermore, even though the header data enables recognition of a waveform, the header data alone does not enable verification of the data subsequent to the header. Therefore, it is not possible to verify whether all data has been successfully transferred. Consequently, inaccurate printing may be executed when data transfer fails and may subject an ejecting unit to an abnormal load and create paper waste.
In addition, a method of compressing waveform data and adding header data is conceivable as a countermeasure for verifying whether data transfer has been successfully performed without increasing data volume. However, in this case, there is a disadvantage in that processing becomes complicated.